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Zillow, Redfin and now Faira - What's the Difference?

Seattle is a hotbed for real estate tech. We are home to popular real estate sites like Zillow and Redfin which have changed how people shop for homes. Many people ask us, "How is Faira different than Redfin and Zillow?" There's a big difference and I'll explain.

Zillow

If you're a homeowner, you've probably checked out your Zestimate on Zillow. This popular home valuation tool made Zillow the go-to site for homeowners to keep up on their home's value. Before the Zestimate, this data wasn't available for public consumption, at least not easily. Since a home is often your largest asset, its value has a huge impact on your net worth. This makes the Zestimate a very important number to know in terms of personal finance. Zillow also publishes other data on schools, neighborhoods and trends that keeps people coming back to the site. And that's good for them because they make money through advertising and by generating leads for real estate agents. The more people that go to the site, the more money they can make.

The big difference: Zillow doesn't help you list your home on the MLS, coordinate professional photography or provide an online platform to accept offers from buyers - Faira does. Faira helps you get your home on the market, present your home with the highest quality marketing materials and manages the offer process for you on our website.

Redfin

Redfin is a disount brokerage with consumer friendly apps that make it easy to shop for homes. They pull their listing data directly from the MLS so it's very reliable. Redfin makes money through agent commissions just like a traditional brokerage. For buyers, Redfin rebates part of the commission at closing - usually less than 1%. For sellers, Redfin charges 1.5% to list instead of the typical 3%. (Check out this blog post to read more about real estate commissions).

The big difference: When you list your home through Faira, there is no commission. Selling your home with Faira is completely free. Faira does everything a Redfin agent would do - more In fact - like professional photography and a home inspection. Faira also uses technology to handle the offer process so even buyers with no agent can participate, which brings you more buyers. Plus, every single buyer will get feedback on their offer so the process is more transparent for everyone.

What if you want to buy a non-Faira home? Say you attend an open house and want to make an offer on a home not listed through Faira. Since the seller is using an agent, you are forced to use an agent too. Faira has a new solution just for this type of buyer. Faira for buyers is four times cheaper than Redfin. We'll have our agent write your offer, but YOU will get the 2% commission back (1.5% in California). Faira can be used several ways to help you make a stronger offer on a home. Call us at 1-800-571-FAIR to learn more.

Faira

At Faira, our mission is to make real estate simple, transparent and fair. By using technology to guide the process we are eliminating the complexity that created the 6% commission standard. With Faira, a home sale costs just 0.5%.